National Police Chief Serhii Kniaziev says Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Odesa top the list of Ukrainian cities with the highest crime rate.

"This is influenced by economic and social factors, namely by the fact that these are industrial regions. However, if we take the Kharkiv region, we’ll see that the region and its capital city differ greatly. A massive urban concentration increases the crime rate.

"As for the central and western Ukraine: the closer the western border is, the lower the crime rate. It depends on the social attitudes rather than the law enforcement system. The locals go to church on Sunday. And as we go further in westerly direction, the more frequent they go to church. If family values prevail over others, then there are fewer offenses," he explained.

According to Kniaziev, the lowest crime rate is in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"The most offenses committed there are situation-dependent: the people nick everything that isn’t nailed down. Another thing is that there are a lot of policemen in the Donbas who make the offenders feel uncomfortable," he said.

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